The biggest news by far to hit our desk today is the rumour that India will be reducing tariffs to zero. An informed source told us they are "working out the details" as the Rabi pulse harvest (yield) projections start to come into focus. This will be very interesting for Lentils in particular because India has been Canada's largest trading partner for Lentils for the past two years - even with tariffs. Consider this - when tariffs were dropped from 30% to 10% percent for part of 2020, Canada ended up exporting 992,125 tonnes to the region. Moreover, India remained Canada's top lentil destination in 2021, accounting for 469,470 tonnes (and this was with a backdrop of on again off again tariffs). Tariffs in India can be complicated to understand. The basic import duty which is/was set at zero for all origins except U.S. (rated at 10% duty), India’s Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess (ADIC) has/had a 10% duty in place, and then you have to consider the Social Welfare Surcharge of 10% applied on the total duties - for a total of 11% on all origins and 22% for U.S. origin. We'll have to see how this all shakes out, but in our experience these 'rumours' turn into facts more often than they do fake news. Key takeaway, India is a major market for Canadian lentils - even with tariffs. News of the removal or reduction of tariffs has the potential to stoke the market and lift all pulses generally.
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